By Colin Mixson
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A man arrested for injuring a cop responding to a giant snowball fight in Washington Square Park accepted a plea deal, officials said Friday.
Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, pleaded guilty to harassment and agreed to perform 20 hours of community service for the NYC Parks Department in exchange for prosecutors dropping the top charge of obstruction, a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
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Coulibaly was allegedly recorded on video hitting a cop in the face with a snowball during the incident near the park’s public restrooms building on Feb. 23.
Cops charged Coulibaly, who was arrested three days later, with assault on a police officer, obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct. But the DA’s Office ultimately chose to charge him with harassment and obstruction of government administration — both misdemeanor offenses.
Speaking at Coulibaly’s arraignment in February, Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association union, blasted the prosecution for not charging him with assault.
“We’re grateful that there were some charges,” Hendry said at the time. “But we need to ask the question, because the video is clear, clear as day, actually, that this individual threw a snowball packed with ice, blasted a police officer in the face. Why do they feel that that didn’t cause an injury to our police officer, which he clearly, clearly has an injury below his eye, the same eye that they talked about? Why is this being downplayed right now?”
Coulibaly has another ongoing case in Manhattan for the alleged attempted robbery of a sidewalk vendor earlier this month.
According to a criminal complaint, Coulibaly, along with two other men, approached the victim on E. 116th St. near Second Ave. in East Harlem around 4:40 p.m. and threatened to flip over his table.
Coulibaly then lifted up his shirt to reveal a pistol tucked into his waistband, before fleeing after hearing police sirens, the complaint shows.
He was arrested later that day and was released after pleading not guilty to attempted robbery for the incident, records show.
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